The Age of Miracles is not over. Maybe in the corporate-
driven U.S. and highly industrialized areas of the world the
closest thing to a miracle is a cell phone or a hand-held
computer, but in the magical, mystical town of Bahia, the
colonial capital of Brazil, marvels still happen. A single such
wonder occurs when an incredibly beautiful woman reverses
the usual fairy-tale cliche by wishing AWAY her love,
petitioning the goddess of the sea to delete the intensely
romantic feeling she had held for what could only be called
the human equivalent of a male god in the guise of a man
who sings like the angels.

Since "Woman on Top" is a fairy tale, Venezuelan-born
director Fina Torres evokes the proper magic from Vera
Blasi's frothy script to put across a film that can scarcely help
enchanting the crowds who come to see it. The story opens
in Bahia, Brazil, as the eponymous woman, Isabella Oliveira
(the Madrid-born Penelope Cruz) is almost literally walking on
air, now married to her partner in the restaurant business,
Toninho Oliveira (Murilo Benicio). As in all legends, Isabella
has a flaw: she has motion sickness. She cannot hold down
her lunch in the back seat of a car: she must be the driver.
Nor can she tolerate even the movement of a trolley car, and,
most detrimental of all, she becomes ill while engaging in sex
unless she can be in the driver's seat, that is, the woman on
top. Her macho husband is tired of being--as he put it--flat
on his back for years, and when caught in flagrante with a
neighbor, Isabella bolts for San Francisco where she hooks
up with her child friend, transsexual Monica Jones (Harold
Perrineau Jr.). She lucks out with a job teaching a cooking
course which leads her to take a role with Monica on a local
TV program--eventually to go national. Meanwhile back in
Bahia, the miserable Toninho curses the sea goddess,
Yemanja--the very same deity invoked by his wife--leading to
a dearth of catches for the local fishermen. As Toninho flies
to San Francisco to reactive Isabella's lost love, even
sneaking into the TV station with a crew of troubadours to
romance her while she is carried live before the cameras,
Isabella develops a relationship with her producer, Cliff Lloyd
(Mark Feuerstein), who is eventually to forsake his uptight
American ways for the unleashed live-for-life culture of Brazil.

If this movie does not get you to call Varig or American
Airlines to book the next flight to the world's coffee capital,
perhaps nothing will. "Woman on Top" is as flamboyantly
romantic as it is bubbly, helped enormously by the staggering
good looks of its two principals. Director Torres must have
had as much fun as the cast, watching flowers spring to life
at the drop of Isabella's tears or wilted blossoms priapically
coming erect as she walks past on the hilly streets of San
Francisco. One riotous scene will remind movie fans of a
similar one in Gary Sinyor's "The Bachelor," as Chris
O'Donnell in the role of a 30-year-old man with a $100 million
inheritance is followed by a veritable army of women in bridal
gowns, all seeking his hand in marriage. In "Woman on
Top," virtually the entire male neighborhood falls into lock
step behind the stunning Isabella as she saunters down the
street with a knowing grin on her face, a radiant flower of
Brazil. Torres knows how to stage a food fight as well, as
colorful fruits and vegetables are hurled during an outdoor TV
filming of a cooking lesson as though the contenders were
mano a mano in the bar of a tough San Francisco
neighborhood.

Elisabeth Tavernier's costumes do much to show off Ms.
Cruz's drop-dead figure while the CD of the music, featuring
ballads like "Cinzas," "Nos Bracos d'Isabelle," and "A Flor E
O Epinho" should do a brisk business at the Virgin
Megastore. The production notes indicate that "Falsa
Bahiana" is about a woman trying to pass as Bahian and
lacking the sex appeal to pull it off. A magical town indeed.
An enchanting movie!